Apollon Rising
by DrunkenNeko
Summary: in reply to an Les Mis Kink Meme; the Les Amis had no Apollo-like leader, but that didn't stop them from fighting for their beliefs or building a barricade. See inside for full summary and details. Time travel AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Notes: **thank you for reading. This piece was inspired by an Les Mis Kink Meme; the Les Amis had no Apollo-like leader, but that didn't stop them from fighting for their beliefs or building a barricade.

(full prompt details: "Musical/Movie inspired: in an AU where Time travel is rare, but possible: The Les Amis have no leader, no Apollo with a ringing voice, but that doesn't stop them from fighting for their beliefs or building a barricade, and Gavroche is still like a younger brother to them all. Gavroche never makes it back to the barricades after he delivers his message to Valjean for whatever reason ... and thus survives the night. Cosette and Marius end up adopting and raising him. By the time Gavroche is in his late teens, he has grown up to be painfully beautiful, charming, and eloquent, and a part of him can't help but think that if the Les Amis had a proper leader, a voice to rally the people, they may have succeeded- or that he could be their voice. So Gavroche makes a deal with a local time traveler to send him back to 1828- the same year the Les Amis first began to form. When Gavroche arrives, he decides to use Courfeyrac's mother's maiden name as a tribute to his surrogate older brother. Courfeyrac and (over time) the rest of the les amis are just trying to figure out who Enjolras reminds them of those few moments he lets his guard down.")

**_Summary_:** By 1839, Gavroche has witnessed the terrible aftermath that the fall of the barricade had upon the two survivors-Marius and Grantaire. They lacked a leader to rally the people, and the Les Amis fell to the National Guard. But Grantaire and Gavroche have both thought, what if they could have rallied the people of Paris?

Gavroche decides that he can save his friends and family from their deaths upon the barricade, and he makes a deal with a mystic to be send back in time, to the months before the Les Amis de L'ABC formed. But as Gavroche plans, he's also been suffering nightmares from a time he cannot remember, standing upon a barricade he never returned to after he delivered the message to Valjean.

Gavroche travels back in time-takes the name 'Enjolras'-but can he change the fates of the student revolutionaries, a fate which is entwined closely with his? And what does Grantaire have to do with everything? Will Gavroche's struggles to rally the people still end in bloodshed? Juxtaposed timelines with time paradoxes. Character-driven.

**_Additional Notes:_** regarding pairings/shippings, this might end up being Grantaire/Enjolras, or at least could be interpreted that way. But it is definitely unrequited Grantaire/Enjolras, later on (according to that interpretation of the canon). It is a more minor part of the story, though, since this isn't quite a romance, it's more general and kinda drama-ish. Other pairings present are Cosette/Marius, Courfeyrac/Jehan implied (if you squint really hard) and unrequited Eponine/Marius. Focusses more on friendships between Enjolras/Gavroche and the Les Amis than relationships.

Story focusses on more than what the prompt details (I don't want to give away too much), and is character-driven rather than plot-driven. It explores time and the fate that binds all. Uses a non-linear timeline, with time paradoxes aplenty. Song lyrics used to aid in storytelling.

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think, please phrase criticisms in a constructive way :) This is my first fanfiction in this fandom.

* * *

**Apollon Rising**

* * *

**Chapter One (parts I through X) Synopsis: **Gavroche remembers the fall of the barricade and the deaths of the revolutionary leaders Combeferre, Joly and Courfeyrac. The two survivors, Marius and Grantaire, honour the deaths of their mates and comrades, and Gavroche and Grantaire wonder what would have happened if they could have rallied the people of Paris.

In past times, Gavroche, adopted by Cosette and Marius following the deaths of Eponine and Courfeyrac, is growing into a charismatic and intellectual young man, with a burning passion for change. But he has begin to suffer from nightmares from a time that never happened, which he cannot remember in the light of the mornings. Grantaire is beginning to feel as though he should not be alive, and he cannot look upon Gavroche without feeling overwhelming heartache.

Grantaire passes away and Gavroche's nightmares continue to overwhelm him, leaving him with only a memory of the deceased man's words.

* * *

**I. **  
**calendrier: sometime between 1832 and 1837**

Gavroche Thenardier only can imagine those moments at dawn . . .

_June 1832 - Le Café Musian - daybreak:_ a soft whimper escapes his mouth as he hears the soldiers below them. Courfeyrac, Joly and Combeferre stand together, the blood of their mates and fellow comrades-in-arms staining their skin. In the café below, the soldiers are silent, before the commander gives the order; the gunshots sound out, and the Centre, Guide and Heart of the revolution fall. It takes only minutes for their lives' blood to begin to pool beneath them; Courfeyrac hears the hollow footfalls of the soldiers on the staircase before he eternally sleeps.

and,

_June 1832 - Le Café Musian - minutes after daybreak:_ echoing silence welcomes Grantaire from his drunken slumber; the barricade has fallen. He chases the phantom footsteps of the soldiers to the upper level of the café; the bodies of his mates had been removed, but their blood still stains the floor. In the aftermath of a war played by children, Grantaire can only sit and drink with the ghosts of memory.

* * *

**II.**  
**calendrier: juin 1832**

_Did you see them going off to fight_  
_Children of the barricade who didn't last the night_

* * *

**III.**  
**calendrier: juin 1837**

Gavroche slides down to the wooden floor in the corridor, with half-hearted intentions to re-read the 'equality and rights of man' textbook he inherited six years ago. It had belonged to his older brother-a surrogate brother tied to him only through blood spilt. Gavroche remembers Courfeyrac's last words, spoken in haste before he and Marius sent him away from the barricade.

He squeezes his eyes shut to keep the tears from falling and instead focuses on the voices emanating from inside the kitchens; those belonging to Marius Pontmercy, his foster-father for five years, and Marius's closest and dearest friend, Grantaire:

"Extravagant processions are not for traitors," Grantaire's words quiver and are over the edge of indistinct with alcohol.

"I know," Marius replies.

The hollow thud of a bottle resonates against the table. "Drink with me, Marius."

Gavroche imagines Marius and Grantaire drinking to the memory of their fallen friends. He cannot remember a time when the cynic isn't drowning himself at the bottom of a wine bottle, but he reckons that Grantaire's drinking becomes worse as the month of June approaches. This dawn had marked six years since the fall of the barricade and the deaths of the Les Amis de l'ABC, a student revolutionary club dedicated to political change.

He blinks through his blurry vision at the textbook splayed across his lap-years ago, the margins of the page had been covered with poetic lines written by Jehan; flowery prose in love with the ideal of love.

Marius's voice filters through the corridor again, "I think you've had enough."

But Gavroche knows his father would never take the bottle away from the drunkard; not when it's the one thing that can dull the pain of living. At times, Gavroche believes that Grantaire no longer trusts in anything besides his mind-inebriating substance of forgetting.

"Do you think it could have been different, Marius?"

"What do you mean?"

There is a moment before Grantaire collects his thoughts, or places the bottle onto the table. "Have you ever thought, what if the people had risen with us, or what if the other barricades hadn't fallen? . . . What do you think would've happened to them all, if we had a leader capable of doing the tasks that Combeferre, Joly or Courfeyrac could never do? Marius, what if . . ." It's one of the few times Grantaire speaks as eloquently he did years ago, and for a moment, Gavroche misses the man he knew.

In the resonating silence that follows, Gavroche knows that the older man doesn't speak the one thought on his mind-always on his mind-_'what if I hadn't been drunk and slept through the battle?'_

Still, Gavroche wonders at his words-what if . . .

What if they could have rallied the people of Paris?

* * *

**IV.**  
**calendrier: juin 1832**

_The time is near, so near it's stirring the blood in their veins_  
_And yet beware, don't let the wine go to your brains_

_We need a sign_  
_To rally the people_  
_To call them to arms_  
_To bring them in line_

* * *

**V. **  
**calendrier: the time between 1832 and 1837**

Cosette called Gavroche her 'golden Apollon' because he could string together riveting words on the most monotonous subject matter, like poetry and song. "It's as though we are listening to music, love. The people would believe a geocentric universe without doubt, if only my Gavroche spoke it," she once claimed, laughter in her voice.

After the fall of the barricade and the deaths Eponine and Courfeyrac, the only sister and brother Gavroche had ever known, Cosette and Marius had adopted the street urchin into their home.

Although he scorned the tutors Marius and the Pontmercy family hired for him-what use could he have with philosophy and law-with time, Gavroche found he enjoyed the lectures and knowledge. He felt that it brought him closer to the friends he had lost on the barricade, the barricade he was forced away from with a message for his foster-mother Cosette.

* * *

**VI. **  
**calendrier: novembre 1837**

Sometimes, in the middle of the cold winter nights, nightmares would waken Gavroche from his slumber. Anxious dreams of darkness, which he cannot remember in the light of the dawning sun, with splinters of broken images; a barricade of furniture that he never stood upon, with a blood-red flag he never held; the upper level of the Musian Café, where Gavroche's brother died, where the young Thenardier himself never stood in the battle.

And, a shaking hand held in his, with soft words spoken, "Do you permit it?" before the gunfire rang out.

Gavroche would waken drenched in sweat on these nights, his heart heavy with loss. A loss different from that he suffered in 1832 when his surrogate family-the Les Amis de l'ABC-died upon a barricade of freedom, abandoned by the people.

* * *

**VII. **  
**calendrier: juin 1838**

As dawn breaks, Gavroche catches the barest of whispers from Cosette, Marius and Grantaire as they light candles in honour of their fallen mates and comrades. The aroma of vanilla wafts through their small house, mixed with the sulphur of matches.

Six years since the bloodshed, and the nightmares burrow their claws deeper into Gavroche's mind; the worn textbook pages further deteriorate with frequent readings; and a burning passion to illicit the social change his friends had died for emergences.

Accompanied by an unsung song, words come like lyrics from his mouth; if they truly have the power to convince the people that Earth is the centre of the universe, Gavroche begins to wonder what else can be accomplish with his silver tongue.

To punctuate his thoughts, Gavroche can hear Grantaire sobbing in grief and Marius awkwardly attempting to console him. But it is his mother's voice he hears as she assuages the drunkard's guilt.

Gavroche rises from bed-nightmares drenching his skin and clinging his sleeping clothes to his body-and joins his family.

* * *

**VIII. **  
**calendrier: between 1832 and 1837**

For reasons he cannot grasp, when neither drunk nor sober, Grantaire is beginning to feel as though he should not be alive. The solace he once found within his dark-red, berry-scented lover eludes him as time passes slowly from one year to the next.

He stares at Gavroche with something parallel to admiration lost in his glazed sight. But, the golden light of Gavroche blinds him and he cannot begin to understand this overwhelming sense of loss.

* * *

**IX. **  
**calendrier: nights between 1836 and 1839**

Near the edge of the city, a small candle flickers in the windows. The dwelling that had been erected on the scrap of land with yellowing grass remains quiet with its straw thatched roof and mud-insulated walls; it is an abode from an era past and elderly next to the dilapidated houses of the slums.

When fogs creep through the streets, the lamps offering little light to shine upon the wet pavement, people rush past the dwelling. They bury themselves within rags of clothing and cast their eyes downward. From the windows of the dwelling, the lone candle flickers still, indifferent to their wandering souls.

At times, the people whisper of devils and black magick, and they offer a quick prayer to the Lord as they make the sign of the cross.

* * *

**X. **  
**calendrier: aout 1838**

Grantaire does not observe another melancholic celebration of the deaths of his mates; he's found unconscious in an alleyway and pronounced dead hours later.

That night, Gavroche's nightmare echoes words of, "Do you permit it?" and a hand presses into his. With a small smile, he presses his hand back against the other's. But Gavroche wakes to darkness, salty tears streaking his face and burning from his eyes.

Another image flashes through his mind-Comberferre, Courfeyrac and Joly standing and fighting by his side-but not /_his_/ side-and dying moments before him. The same voice rings out words he cannot remember as the /_other_/ Gavroche raises a blood-red flag in defiance at the soldiers and the ideals they enforce.

The images of blood and death fade away as consciousness takes its hold, and for all his attempts to hold on to some sliver of the nightmare, within minutes, Gavroche cannot remember what violently woke him in the dead of the night, cannot remember what wakes him with tears and sweat, with the cupric taste of blood in his mouth.

All which remains is an echo: _what if they could have rallied the people of Paris?_

* * *

_... to be continued_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:** thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, added me or the story to their alerts and favourites :) I'm so glad that you are enjoying the story, and I look forward to your thoughts on this chapter/these parts as well.

'Enjolras' refers to Gavroche after he has went back in time and taken on his persona as the leader of the Les Amis. 'Gavroche' refers to, well Gavroche, before he has went back in time, or as the child Gavroche after the adult Gavroche has went back in time.

* * *

**Apollon Rising**

* * *

**Chapter Two (parts XI through XVIII) Synopsis:** In time past, Gavroche's education as a teenager prepare him for his unknown (and likely paradoxal) fate upon the barricades, and the power of the /diavol/ is at work in the dark streets of Paris. Both Cosette and Marius cannot look upon their son without a time paradox muddling their thoughts. Gavroche seeks the aid of a powerful mystic for the paradoxal nightmares he continues to suffer. In past times, Combeferre first meets Enjolras at a student protest ... there is probably another time paradox at play in there somewhere.

* * *

**XI. **  
**calendrier: sometime in 1835**

The maths tutor gave his notice to Marius this morning, after he spent an hour quoting scripture at Gavroche, who had accidentally dyed his skin dark crimson with clothing dye his foster-mother bought.

On hindsight, Gavroche thought he shouldn't have attached curved horns to his forehead.

* * *

**XII. **  
**calendrier: the months between 1837 and 1839**

Gavroche tentatively requests that his mum and dad hire his collection of tutors over the weekend hours, in addition to his weekday lessons. With a candle burning for light, he spends more time within the house and lost within his textbooks. With a hunger unparallel to anything before, he reads on the policies of the government, the history of France and the world, on popular subjects such as debate, philosophy and medicine.

With time, his tutors inform the Pontmercys that their son is surpassing even their expectations. Gavroche cradles Courfeyrac's old textbook against his chest; he has no need to read the printed words any longer, for he has them all memorised. That emerging fire of change sparks anew, and Gavroche feels closer to his departed friends than he has in months.

One day, Cosette beams and ruffles Gavroche's blond curls with her slender fingers. "My little Apollon will change the world with his voice," she laughs, and Gavroche doesn't the heart to tell her how right her words will be.

It is a thought he doesn't fully understand himself.

* * *

**XIII. **  
**calendrier: janvier 1840**

Cosette cannot gaze upon her son without wanting to shed tears.

She blames it on hormones.

* * *

**XIV. **  
**calendrier: between 1830 and 1838**

Ever since a young child living on the streets of Paris, Gavroche loved his country and its people, and that grew into action after he had met Courfeyrac and found commonalities with the student revolutionaries. With them, young Gavroche sang songs of fallen monarchs and dreams of a tomorrow, handed out propaganda pamphlets and attempted to rally the people with Courfeyrac, Joly and Combeferre.

But they had no rallying voice to inspire action within the people of Paris, and in the end, they fell like their barricade. But the destruction of the barricade and the deaths of his friends never diminished Gavroche's devotion to his country and her people, to fight for social change, to fight for the values that Courfeyrac and the other Les Amis members believed in.

It had been this sense of admiration and respect, and an unexplained desire to make Courfeyrac proud, which caused young Gavroche to tolerate the tutors he would come to cherish in his teen years.

The fatherland-Patria-was the only mistress Gavroche concerned himself with. Patria, and the memories of his family and comrades-in-arms from when he was too young to be fighting at barricades, would be the reason he would rally the people. While he fought for Patria and the basic freedoms all mankind should experience, he lived for the friends and family lost when the barricade fell.

* * *

**XV. **  
**calendrier: juin 1832**

_Will you join in our crusade?_  
_Who will be strong and stand with me?_  
_Beyond the barricade _  
_Is there a world you long to see?_

* * *

**XVI. **  
**calendrier: avril 1839**

Marius avoids Gavroche's eyes; he can no longer look at his son without feeling a sense of terrible dismay. The feeling battles alongside pride.

He does not understand why.

* * *

**XVII. **  
**calendrier: juin 1840**

Eight years following the failed rebellion and the fall of the barricade, Gavroche hears rumours of a Romanian mystic living abroad in France, selling concoctions and talismans to ease societal ills. He seeks conversation with hooded strangers in taverns, nomads and beggars on the streets, thieves and con-artists in the alleyways, before he decides to acquire a concoction to ease the escalating nightmares.

But, deep within, Gavroche knows that his desires are not isolated to ills of the night.

As the fogs have settled on the pavement, he walks through the desolate streets and seeks the mystic at the outskirts of the city. Her small dwelling is barely a mud hut with a straw roof-odd building materials, Gavroche considers-but he's thankful for the candle burning in the window.

He approaches, and although he had been careful to make no sound, the door opens, revealing a tall man-a nephew perhaps, or a grandson-partially eclipsing a short woman with a presence greater than his. Her rheumy-eyed flash and her white hair glitters in the absence of moonlight. She beckons him closer, and with a deep breath, Gavroche summons courage to not forget this foolish mission and depart.

But he can no longer see the fake smiles his parents force upon their faces at this time of the year; can no longer stare at Courfeyrac's textbook with Jehan's poetry; can no longer take a swig of wine without it tasting bitter upon his tongue. Gavroche cannot forget the hypothetical words Grantaire once spoke to Marius, words burdened with more than mere regret, and he cannot forget the overwhelming emotions that the nightmares bring.

Although the Les Amis de l'ABC may be gone for eight years, their ideals still burn within Gavroche.

"Pardon, Mademoiselle," Gavroche says.

The mystic continues to smile and stare at him-through him-with rheumy eyes. When she finally speaks, it isn't with her voice, but the voice of her acolyte. His words are tied down with a Romanian brogue: "What is it you desire, Monsieur?"

Gavroche doesn't have an uncomplicated answer to her question, particularly one that would save his sanity. But he had heard stories of her powers; men brought back from the dead; men with never-ending life; men born again in another era. . . .

Men sent back through history.

The mystic nods, seemingly at Gavroche's thoughts. It sends a coldness coursing down his spine, through his veins. The mystic beckons Gavroche inside. She and her acolyte retreat into the warmth of the hut.

After a moment's hesitation, Gavroche follows.

* * *

**XVIII. **  
**calendrier: septembre 1827**

Combeferre meets Enjolras at a protest at the university.

The medical student stands near the edge of the crowd of students, surveying the ringing voices calling for equality. Combeferre removes his glasses and wipes them clean on the corner of his slate-blue vest; he should be revising, he knows; there is an essay contrasting the political beliefs of Socrates and Plato due in two days for his philosophy elective.

As a blond student invokes passion within the people, the words of the essay flit through Combeferre's mind. He mentally makes note of the necessary changes to his arguments- an amendment to Socrates's view of democracy in Athens. He catches the odd fiery word of equality and rights from the blond standing at the front of the collection of students, but it isn't anything he hasn't heard years past, isn't anything he himself doesn't believe in.

The protesters scatter as the Inspector and the police force interferes, and a student wearing a dark-green vest staggers into him. He mumbles quick apologies before stumbling away, leaving Combeferre to readjust his glasses and assess his surroundings; it is then that he notices that the blond activist, the one with the passion fiery in his eyes, is staring at him.

* * *

_... to be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes: **Thank you for reading :) Please consider leaving a review.

* * *

**Apollon Rising**

* * *

**Chapter Three (parts XIX and XX) Synopsis: **a young Gavroche meets Courfeyrac on the streets of Paris, while an older Gavroche continues to seek the powers of the mystic for a sleeping draught to ease his nightmares. But as the hour of the _diavol_ approaches, Gavroche realises his own thoughts and desires.

* * *

**XIX.**

**calendrier: summer 1827**

Gavroche can remember how he met Courfeyrac described with three simple words that, when he hears them years in the future, will wrench his heart: _liberte, egalite _and _fraternite. _

_Liberte: _

Through the crowded streets of Paris, a young Gavroche pushes between Marius and Courfeyrac to duck into the alleyway. Three other young children follow him, fighting their way through the people.

At the same time as a young boy with a golden halo of curls knocks them aside, Courfeyrac is discussing politics and law with Marius. It takes the students several moments before they realise that they have been effectively relieved of several francs, stolen by expert hands of the youngest Thenardier son (as Courfeyrac will discover a year after meeting Gavroche).

Two things happen simultaneously: Marius complains about his hard-earned francs and runs after the boy, and Courfeyrac realises that Marius won't ever pay him back if he keeps losing his francs to street urchins. He wonders if there is an invisible target on Pontmercy's back, as this is the third time this week.

Courfeyrac sighs and follows Marius. He finds his mate and the blond child in the alley; Marius has the boy at the collar to prevent his escape, an expression of disbelief on his face as he stares at his white-knuckled hands at the boy's light blue cravat. Courfeyrac is slightly stunned with Marius (as is Marius with himself) and approaches the two slowly.

"Marius." Courfeyrac touches his friend's forearm. Marius releases his hold and apologises before taking a step back. The boy blinks at them, dirt smeared across his face.

_Egalite: _

Courfeyrac holds out his hand and Gavroche reluctantly drops the francs into his palm. After a moment, Courfeyrac sighs and shoves the coins back at the street urchin. Gavroche beams, the sun flashing from his golden curls. His fingers fumble at the loosely tied cravat at his neck-a relic given to him by his older sister Eponine. He wore it with traditional Thenardier pride, although it was too large for his small stature.

Gavroche holds out the dirt-covered fabric; it is frayed at the edges, the stitching broken. "Something for you," he says, "something for me."

Courfeyrac takes the light blue cravat that Gavroche offered him, before the young boy turns (the coins hidden away among his layers of clothing) and runs after his mates. Courfeyrac stares in his direction before the boy disappears into the crowd, before Marius calls his name. He carefully folds the cravat and sets it inside his waistcoat pocket, turning to his friend.

"Technically, that should be mine." Marius scowls

"Technically, you still owe me ten francs."

_Fraternite: _

Courfeyrac gently washes the light-blue cravat and asks Musicetta to mend it before he ties it around his neck.

In the dirty streets of Paris, the blond curls of the street urchin are easily spotted, and over time, Gavroche follows in Courfeyrac's shadow, an extension that quickly grows from friendship into one of brotherhood. Although Gavroche continues to live on the streets, he spends the colder nights with Courfeyrac at his flat.

After the Les Amis forms, Courfeyrac introduces Gavroche to his fellow student revolutionaries, and pins the patch onto his younger brother's coat.

* * *

**XX.**

**calendrier: juin 1840**

Dark clouds part the moonlight shining on the wet streets of Paris. Shivers course down Gavroche's spine as the mystic beckons him inside once more, before she and her acolyte retreat into the warmth of the mud hut.

It only takes Gavroche a moment longer to follow. The aromas of spice and sandalwood surround Gavroche; the humidity inside infuses soft undertones of dirt and earth into the air of the dwelling. The mystic stands before a bookcase burdened with overflowing spice jars and parchment paper. Set at odd intervals around the small room, candles melt wax upon the wood, their candlelight flickering wallow light upon herbal sticks and knuckle bones.

"Pardon Mademoiselle," Gavroche carefully chooses his words, "I understand you market in sleeping draughts and concoctions to ease the ills of the night?"

She searches through the dark-coloured glass jars, and her acolyte answers, "Mistress markets in magicks of the soul and of the earth."

The humidity and earth-smell cloy in his lungs and Gavroche coughs. The mystic and acolyte take no notice, and the man continues in his Romanian brogue, "But she believes not your words, young Thenardier-Pontmercy; she wishes to hear what you genuinely seek at the hour of the _diavol_?"

Gavroche jerks; he did not recall declaring his name. The mystic turns, indicating for her client to cup his hands together, and she dusts his palms with a white powder. It begins to numb his skin, and Gavroche raises an eyebrow to the acolyte.

"I have no need to explain her methods, Monsieur."

"My apologies."

The mystic continues her ritual and anoints Gavroche's hands with oil, followed by the area of the third eye upon his forehead. There is a slight burning itch where the oil touches his skin.

"What is it you truly seek at the hour of the _diavol_?" the acolyte repeats.

Gavroche remembers fragments of nightmares that he cannot piece together, words that he doesn't understand. "Foolish dreams of a foolish young man, following and leading equally-foolish schoolboys in a long-past time forgotten to the people," he mutters. A part of him disbelieves that the mystic's powers can bring him any sort of peace, and another part wonders what peace it is he seeks.

Lost in thought, Gavroche sighs and reaches at memories he can never remember. They leaden his heart and bring tears to his eyes, while the candles continue to flicker, the oil weakly burns his skin. But the mystic smiles, her eyes glittering silver in the candle light. Leaning forward, she takes his hand within hers.

"It has been decided then?" the acolyte continues to speak for his mistress.

Gavroche replies, "It has." He doesn't flinch from the mystic's piercing eyes

There has never been no other option-for not Gavroche, not anymore.

"You wish to be torn from this time as it progresses forward," the acolyte speaks not in questions but in certainty. "Thrust through the ether of the abyss, forced into an era past. Do you have an understanding of the magicks that must be harnessed to perform the work of the _diavol, _to return you to a time before the blood was spilt upon the barricade?"

"I do not," Gavroche says.

The acolyte continues, "She requires certain possessions to perform the magick."

The mystic presses lips to the oil anointed on Gavroche's forehead. Her touch sooths and calms his whirling mind.

"An item embedded in the essence of that time, covered with the blood of a loved one."

Another small part of Gavroche's heart breaks apart-tucked away in his bedroom, is Courfeyrac's light blue cravat, the one given to him by a young street urchin so many lifetimes ago. It is marred with the blood of Joly, Combeferre and Courfeyrac; pierced by bullets from below, their blood had ran in rivulets across the upper level of _The Café Musian_.

* * *

_... to be continued_


End file.
